Parent-Child Relations: Divorce & Childrens Mental Health

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Divorce on Children’s Mental Health
Introduction
Every year approximately one million children suffer due to their parents divorcing. Divorce causes irreparable mental harm especially to children resulting to temporary decrease in individual quality of life. The psychological effects of divorce on children are devastating. However, parents do not realize how their private wars can have a lasting effect on their children. According to medical experts, children are the worst affected during the divorce process because not many parents think about the consequences instead parents manipulate their children for personal and financial reasons (Potrykus and Fagan 45).
Divorce weakens children's future competence as it permanently affects family relationships between children and parents resulting constant conflicts. In future children are affected because divorce affects their sense of masculinity or femininity resulting troubles with dating or cohabiting as they, same children are likely to divorce later in life when they grow up. One of the recent studies revealed that children of divorced parents cannot absorb all the events during the divorce process. Instead, they gather and interpreted information about their parents, and use this information to come up with several coping strategies including manipulating their parents by keeping certain information from one parent to avoid punishment or to solidify their relationship with the other parent. Children also gain an upper hand by controlling information since there is reduced communication among the parents (Fagan, 101).
Expert recommends that children can survive and thrive in this process if surrounded by loving adults or role models in their lives. Parents can nurture and love them despite their difference children will not be much affected by their parents divorce. The effects of divorce on children mental health ranges from mild to severe or from short-term or long-term effects (Fagan, 102).
Effects of Divorce on Mental Health of Children
Stressful situation after divorce lead to children becoming anxious, depressed or indulge in substance abuse as a way of coping with the difficult situation; sometimes children attempt to commit suicide. With time children develop delinquent behaviors, girls easily seek external relief resulting to teen pregnancy. According to research, children caught up in the process of separation or divorce is likely to develop several problems that affect their levels of concentration, resulting poor performance in school (Potrykus and Fagan 20).
These children also have anger management problems and sleep disorder. All these come as a result of children feeling guilty for their parent's separation. Children always imagine that it is their fault or guilty for not having done anything to prevent their parents from divorcing.

Weakened Parent-Child Relationships
When parents divorce the relationship between them and their children weakens, after divorce parents are faced with two main problems one is an adjustment to their intrapsychic conflict and how to play the new role as divorced parents. Such a strenuous process causes stress and damages the parent –child relationship as they r...